How to Insert Square Brackets in Word

Looking to construct a matrix or use square brackets in a formula? Having to make changes to a direct quotation? Find out here how to insert square brackets in Word for Windows and Mac in both text and equations.

First, How to Break Shaken Bread

Dry and crisp Schüttelbrot popular in South Tyrol and parts of Austria is never cut.

If, in fact, you try to cut the aromatic rye bread, you’ll quickly discover there’s not much point in trying.

Literally shaken bread (from schütteln, to shake, and Brot, bread), the flat round loaves are placed upside down on the table instead. You’ll find that you don’t even have to shake then; firmly pressing down in it is enough to produce artistically shaped pieces that go formidably with speck and mountain cheese.

Now, need to “break” something in a quotation? Press firmly on the following keys to insert square brackets for just that purpose in Word:

How to Insert Square Brackets ( [ ] ) in Word

Word for Windows and Mac as well as Word Online

Add Square Brackets Using the Word Symbol Dialog

To add square brackets using the Symbol dialog in Microsoft Word for Mac or Windows:

1. Go to the Insert tab on the Word ribbon.
2. Select Symbol | More Symbols… (Windows) or Symbol | Advanced Symbols (Mac) in the ribbon’s Symbols section.
3. Go to the Symbols tab.
4. Select (normal text) for the Font:.
5. Find [ immediately after Z, and ] following not far behind.
   Subset: On Windows, you can select Basic Latin as the Subset: to navigate quickly.
6. Double-click the square bracket characters to insert them.

How to Insert Square Brackets in Word Equations

To use square brackets in formulae and equations (for matrices, for instance) with Word for Windows and Word for Mac:

1. Go to the Insert tab on the ribbon.
2. Select Equation in the Symbols section.
   Word keyboard shortcut: You can also press Control = (Mac) or Alt = (Windows) to start composing an equation.
3. Make sure the Equation tab is active on the ribbon.
4. Insert regular square brackets (for vectors, for instance) using the Bracket menu in the ribbon.
   Using the keyboard: Inserting brackets with the keyboard (as above) also works here.
5. Insert square brackets for matrices using Matrix | Matrices with Brackets and Sparces Matrices in the ribbon.
   Don’t use the keyboard: Adding a matrix to brackets inserted with the keyboard does not work as you cannot properly stretch the square brackets’ height to match the matrix.
   

Word for iOS and Android: While you can add new equations and see formulae, you cannot add new matrices or edit existing matrices with square brackets.

Word Online at Office.com: In Word Online, you can see existing equations but not edit them or add new ones.

Edit Matrices

To change the formatting and size of a bracketed matrix in Word:

• Click any cell with the right mouse button and select Insert | Insert… from the context menu to add columns or rows.
• Right-click and select Delete | Delete… to remove columns or rows from the matrix.
• Select a matrix (using the three-dots handle in its top left corner), then right-click it and select Stretch Brackets so it is enabled.

How to Insert Square Brackets in Word: FAQ

How can I remove square brackets from an equation in Word?

To remove square brackets from a matrix in a Word equation:

1. Highlight the matrix with the three dots handle in its top left corner.
2. Click on the highlighted matrix with the right mouse button.
3. Select Remove Enclosing Characters from the context menu.
   Just one bracket: Use Remove Opening Bracket and Remove Closing Bracket to delete just one half of the square brackets.

Delete square brackets not part of a matrix using the Del or Backspace keys.

How to Insert Square Brackets in LaTeX

In LaTeX, you can insert square brackets in text and single-line mathematics just so: [ and ].

To insert square brackets so they automatically expand with the height of the mathematical expression, use \left and \right immediately before them.

Example

A_{3\times3} =
\left[
  \begin{array}{ccc}
    a_{11} & a_{12} & a_{13} \\
    a_{21} & a_{22} & a_{23} \\
    a_{31} & a_{32} & a_{33}
  \end{array}
\right]

results in this:

$A_{\mathrm{3\times 3}}=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}{a}_{11}& a_{12}& a_{13}\\ a_{21}& a_{22}& a_{23}\\ a_{31}& a_{32}& a_{33}\end{array}\right]$

(as reproduced using HTML) or

(as an image).

Amsmath, of course, also lets you construct matrices.

Not in Word: Note that Word’s equation editor, even set to LaTeX, will not let you set up matrices with the code above.

(How to insert square brackets in Word tested with Word for Microsoft 365 Version 2306–2402; updated March 2024)